Recruiting qualifications of the ID profession and their implication in student career guidance

Transcription

1 Recruiting qualifications of the ID profession and their implication in student career guidance Ming-Ying Yang*, Manlai You*, and Fei-Chuan Chen** * Graduate School of Design ** Graduate School of Technological & Vocational Education National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Douliu, Yunlin, Taiwan L8285@ms31.hinet.net; youm@yuntech.edu.tw; chenfj@yuntech.edu.tw Abstract: Many studies have been done on the competencies of industrial designers, however, very little information is available about relevant competencies needed for various design tasks during the product development process in different types of design organizations, such as in-house design departments or design consultancies. With a perspective of career guidance for the ID students, this study aims to understand various job titles currently adopted in the ID profession in Taiwan and their corresponding recruiting qualifications. The differences in job titles and qualifications between in-house design departments and design houses are then analyzed. Job opportunities available in the ID profession announced in twenty major job searching websites and the classified ads in two major newspapers in Taiwan were collected during June 2002 to January Content analysis was conducted to analyze the recruiting qualifications required by each job. Overall, 265 jobs are categorized into 3 groups: industrial design, mechanism design, and others, including 13 job titles related to the ID profession. Recruiting qualifications are classified into basic requirements (education, age, gender, and others) and required competency (professional and general skills, personality and attitudes). The top five competencies are familiarity with 3D graphic software, basic communication ability in English, fluency in English, 2D graphic software ability, as well as creativity and imagination. Familiarity with 3D graphic software is required by both in-house design departments (IHDs) and design houses (DHs). Overall, IHDs emphasize more on general skills, and DHs focus more on professional skills. Information about ID recruiting not only enables students to better understand the job market, but also helps design educators to consider whether or not design courses can satisfy different types of design organizations, job types, and students needs. Keywords: industrial design, recruiting qualifications, career guidance, required competencies, design education 1. Introduction The industrial design profession has been developed in Taiwan for about 40 years. Recently the annual local job openings for industrial designers amount around 600 to 800, compared to a total of 1,300 ID graduates each year. On the other hand, many ID graduates do not choose to pursue a career in the design profession, causing difficulties for corporations to recruit desired design talents [Career Employment Information, 2003]. According to the definitions and missions of industrial design profession addressed by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), the ID profession extends to include not only the categories of engineering, commerce, and aesthetics, but also to concern with social and cultural issues [IDSA, 2003; ICSID, 2003]. Students majoring in industrial design must understand their own abilities and interests, and understand the potential job opportunities in the ID profession in order to be successfully employed in the future. ID programs in Taiwan recruit their students from both general and vocational high schools, the former is course-oriented, and the latter is oriented to technical skills, so this mixture of students

2 with different backgrounds challenges both teachers and students. Once students encounter pressure or frustration during the learning process, they may doubt whether they are suitable to continue studying ID, and they feel uncertainty over their future. Due to the extensive aspects of the ID profession and the different backgrounds of students, guiding ID students to plan their careers ahead is an important and worthwhile issue for design educators. Many studies have been done on competencies of industrial designers [Archer, 1974; Ballay, 1991; Ho et al., 1996; Saka Sida, 1996]. However, there has been little information about relevant competencies needed for the different design tasks during the product development process and for the various types of design organizations, such as in-house design departments or design consultancies. During the product development process, the tasks connected to the ID discipline can be roughly divided into four stages: planning, designing, prototyping, and engineering. Their corresponding design skills are: 1) Planning Stage: knowledge of market, marketing, design, engineering, and planning. 2) Designing Stage: abilities of ideation, creativity, aesthetics, sketching and drawing, as well as model making, etc. 3) Prototyping Stage: abilities to making sophisticated prototypes for appearance models, operating models, mechanism models, etc. 4) Engineering Stage: specialized engineering knowledge of mechanism, molding tools, electrical engineering and manufacturing [Ho et al., 1997]. The work contents of industrial design, as related to different job titles, can be classified into: 1) Planning Designer: with sharp observation and unique creativity to consider users as the center and develop new product ideas. 2) Industrial Designer: following the above-mentioned proposal, and using abilities of visual thinking to draw sketches and make models; to analyze, evaluate, and present ideas; to use 2D and 3D drawing software to develop possible ideas. 3) Mechanism Designer: based on 3D thinking of mechanism operations and structures to design the appearance and functions of products, and to understand how molding tools work. 4) Model Designer: transferring the 2D or 3D drawings into models, using knowledge of engineering drawings, model making, and material characteristics, etc. [Chang, 1995]. In their survey, Yang et al. [2002] report that in recruiting designers, design houses emphasize more on professional skills, whereas in-house design departments place more importance on the applicants learning potential and proficiency in English. With a perspective of career guidance for the ID students, this study aims to understand the various job titles currently adopted in the ID profession in Taiwan and their corresponding recruiting qualifications. The differences in job titles and qualifications between in-house design departments and design houses are then analyzed. Information about ID recruiting not only enables students to understand the current job market, but also helps design educators to consider whether or not design courses can satisfy different types of industry, job types, and students needs. 2. Method Job opportunities available in the ID profession announced in twenty major job searching websites (the URL for each website is listed in Table 1) and the classified ads in two major newspapers (China Times and United Daily News) in Taiwan were collected during June 2002 to January Content analysis was conducted to analyze the recruiting qualifications required by each job. The steps for searching job titles were as follows: 1) First, the following key words were used to search: a) Industrial Design: ID; product design; product styling; styling design; 3D design; CAD engineer; CAID engineer. b) Mechanism Design: mechanism engineer; mechanism design; structure design. c) Planning or Management: design research; design project management; product planning; concept development; concept research. d) Package: package engineer; package designer. e)

3 Table 1 Twenty major job searching websites in Taiwan used by this study Job Searching Websites URL China Times Job Bank Yahoo 104 Job Bank Job Bank pc home Job Bank Job Bank Career Employment Information Job Bank TransAsia Job Bank Taipei Job Bank Taichung Job Bank att Job Bank United Job Bank myjob Job Bank jobsdb ABC123 Job Bank Seeder Job Bank Taiwan ReJOB Job Bank Design Republic Hinet Employment Information Graphics or Interface: human-machine interface; GUI graphics design; product graphics. 2) Next, for a broader search, the following key words were used: design; designer; development; research and development; styling, industrial product; product; creative 3) Then all searching results were listed to eliminate repetitions. 4) Finally, each job title was classified and the frequency for each recruiting qualification was counted. 3. Results and Discussions 3.1 Classifications, amount, and ratio of all job titles in the ID profession Table 2 lists the classifications, amount, and ratio of all job titles in the ID profession. A total of 265 job opportunities in the industrial design profession grouped into 13 job titles are classified into three categories: 1) Industrial Design (ID) group: including industrial designer, senior industrial designer, and design director/manager. 2) Mechanism Design (MD) group: including mechanism designer, senior mechanism designer, and mechanism director/manager. 3) Others: including planning, management, interface, package and CAID, etc. Among the 265 jobs, 151 jobs (57% of the total) are for the ID group, 83 jobs (31.3%) for the MD group, and 31 jobs (11.7%) for the Others group. 43% of the job openings can be classified into the Mechanism Design and Others groups, so it shows that the job market does provide extensive job opportunities for the ID graduates. 3.2 Recruiting qualifications for the overall ID Profession Table 3:Classifications of recruiting qualifications category Basic requirements Competency requirements education age gender past design experience other experiences Professional General Personality & attitudes qualifications senior high school college university graduate not mention abroad studies under 30 under 35 under 45 not mention male female not mention 1-2 years 3-5 years 6-9 years over 10 years not mention international working experience managerial experience can work independently exp. with a particular industry/product interest to a particular industry/product familiarity with 3D software familiarity with 2D software creativity and imagination knowledge of molding tools or plastics injection aesthetic discipline sketching and ideation popular messages & trends new product planning and marketing (clay) modeling basic communication ability in English fluency in English can communicate, coordinate, organize international views active, aggressive, and optimistic can travel to China or abroad interested in and devoted to design having team spirit enthusiastic with sense of responsibility willing to learn and be diligent high EQ with sharp observation As shown in Table 3, recruiting qualifications are classified into basic requirements (educational background, age, gender, past experience preferred) and required competencies (professional and general skills, personality and attitudes). Table 4 summarizes the recruiting qualifications for the overall ID profession in the right-most column: 1) Education: except for concept researchers, a college or university degree is generally required. In addition, 7.4% of in-house design departments request experience of studying or living abroad to respond to

4 Table 2 Classifications, amount, and ratio of all job titles within the ID profession Category Industrial Design (ID) Mechanism Design (MD) Others ID assistant, IDer, ID engineer, project IDer, Mechanism (R&D) engineer, design researcher, design project manager, Senior ID (engineer), ID director/manager, (product) mechanism designer/engineer, concept researcher, project planner, (industrial ) product designer/engineer, Senior mechanism designer, product planner/engineer, (product ) styling designer, structure design engineer, concept development researcher/designer, styling design engineer, 3D designer/engineer, mechanism design (R&D) manager, human-machine interface designer, product appearance styling designer, mechanism project manager GUI graphics designer, package engineer, merchandise appearance design engineer, package design engineer/manager, product development engineer, CAD engineer, CAID engineer product creative engineer/director Job titles within the ID job titles used by this study and their amount and ratio three levels : 1) industrial designer (135 jobs, 51%); 2) senior IDer (8 jobs, 3%); 3) design director/manager (8 jobs, 3%) three levels: 1) mechanism designer (65 jobs, 24.5%); 2) senior mechanism designer (12 jobs, 4.5%); 3) mechanism director/manager (6 jobs, 2.3%) 1) product planner (9 jobs, 3.4%); 2) concept researcher (5 jobs, 1.9%); 3) design project manager (4 jobs, 1.5%); 4) interface designer (2 jobs, 0.8%); 5) package engineer (3 jobs, 1.1%); 6) package design manager (2 jobs, 0.8%); 7) CAID engineer (6 jobs, 2.3%) globalization. 2) 70.6% of the 265 jobs have no age preference, 18.1% are limited to individuals under 35 years old, and those for managers preferred individuals under 45 years old (7.5%). 3) 93.2% prefer no particular gender, but 6% of the total prefer male. 4) Past experience: 1 to 2 years is generally preferred (42.6%), but senior designers and managers generally require 3 to 5 years experience. 5) Other experiences: experience with a particular industry or product is the most important; the ability to work independently is the second. 6) The top five competencies are as follows: 3D graphic software ability (55.1%), basic communication ability in English (30.2%), fluency in English (21.1%), 2D graphic software ability (17.4%), creativity and imagination (16.6%). These results show that corporations not only emphasize professional competencies, but also focus on applicants communication ability in English and their international views. Other requirements are applicants personality and attitudes, such as active, aggressive and optimistic (10.6%); able to travel to China or abroad (7.2%); interested in and devoted to design (4.5%); and having team spirit (4.5%), etc. 3.3 Comparisons of recruiting qualifications among three job categories Table 4 also compares the recruiting qualifications among three job categories in the subtotal columns: 1) Education: the groups of ID and Others generally request a college degree, whereas the MD group requests a university degree. 2) Age and gender preferred are not mentioned by all three categories. 3) The ID and MD groups request 1 to 2 years work experience, whereas Others requests 3 to 5 years. 4) Other experiences: all three categories generally expect applicants to have experience with a particular industry or product. 5) Among the top three competencies requested, there are two professional competencies requested by the ID group, which are 3D and 2D graphic software abilities, and one general competency, which is basic communication ability in English. There is one professional competency (3D graphic software ability) requested by the MD group, two general competencies such as fluency in English and basic communications ability in English. The Others request two general competencies (ability to communicate, coordinate and

5 organize, as well as fluency in English). This shows that communication ability in English is a general competency commonly requested by all three categories, whereas 3D graphic software ability is a professional competency requested by both ID and MD groups. The particular competency requested by the Others group depends on different job titles. For example, CAID engineers request 3D graphic software ability, concept researchers require skills of sketching and ideation, and product planners request skills for new product planning and marketing. 3.4 Recruiting qualifications of the 13 job titles in the ID profession The various qualifications generally requested by each of the 13 job titles are also shown in Table 4, as following: 1) Industrial Designer: college degree; 1 to 2 years work experience; experience with the particular industry or product preferred. The top three competencies generally requested are 3D graphic software ability, basic communication ability in English, and 2D graphic software ability. 2) Senior Industrial Designer: university degree; 3 to 5 years experience. The top three competencies generally requested are familiarity with 3D graphic software and 2D graphic software, and basic communication ability in English. 3) Design Director/Manager: university degree; 3 to 5 years experience; managerial experience is preferred. The top three competencies generally requested are 3D graphic software ability, fluency in English, and basic communication ability in English. 4) Mechanism Designer: university degree; 1 to 2 years experience; experience with the particular industry or product is preferred. The top competencies generally requested are 3D graphic software ability, basic communication ability in English, knowledge of molding tools or plastics injection, and fluency in English. 5) Senior Mechanism Designer: college/university degree (50% each); 3 to 5 years work experience; experience with the particular industry or product is preferred. The top competencies generally requested are 3D graphic software ability, fluency in English; knowledge of molding tools or plastics injection; active, aggressive and optimistic personality; ability to communicate, coordinate and organize. 6) Mechanism Director/Manager: college degree; 3 to 5 years work experience; experience with the particular industry or product is preferred. The top three competencies generally requested are fluency in English, 3D graphic software ability, and knowledge of molding tools or plastics injection. 7) Product Planner: university degree; 3 to 5 years experience; experience with the particular industry or product is preferred. The top three competencies generally requested are new product planning and marketing; fluency in English; active, aggressive and optimistic personality. 8) Concept Researcher: graduate degree. The top competencies requested are high EQ with sharp observation; sketching and ideation abilities; new product planning and marketing abilities; fluency in English; and the ability to communicate, coordinate and organize. 9) Design Project Manager: college degree/not mentioned (50% each); 3 to 5 years experience; managerial experience is preferred. The top competency generally requested is the ability to communicate, coordinate and organize. 10) Interface Designer: university/graduate degree (50% each); experience with the particular industry or product is preferred. The top competencies generally requested are 3D graphic software ability; creativity and imagination; aesthetic discipline; basic communication ability in English; ability to communicate,

6 Table 4 Comparisons of recruiting qualifications among the three job categories Category Industrial Design Mechanism Design Others Total ID SID DD Subtotal MD SMD MDD Subtotal PP CR DPM IFD PE PDM CAIDE Subtotal Job Title Item 51% 3.0% 3.0% 57% 24.5% 4.5% 2.3% 31.3% 3.4% 1.9% 1.5% 0.8% 1.1% 0.8% 2.3% 11.7% 100% College/ College Univ./ College Univ. Univ. College Univ. College Univ. Univ. grad. Education univ. /NM grad. College College NM College College 46.7% 62.5% 50% 43.7% 49.2% 50% Ea. 50% 48.2% 55.6% 60% 50% Ea. 50% Ea. 100% 100% 33.3% 32.3% 42.3% Age NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM 64.4% 87.5% 62.5% 65.6% 69.2% 91.7% 66.7% 72.3% 66.7% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 90.3% 70.6% Gender NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM 92.6% 100% 87.5% 92.7% 90.8% 100% 83.3% 91.6% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 93.2% 3-5 yrs Past Design 1-2 yrs 3-5 yrs 1-2 yrs 1-2 yrs 1-2 yrs 3-5 yrs 3-5 yrs 1-2 yrs 3-5 yrs NM 3-5 yrs NM 1-2 yrs 1-2 yrs 3-5 yrs 1-2 yrs /NM Experience 53.3% 100% 75% 47.7% 46.2% 83.3% 50% 38.6% 44.4% 60% 75% 100% 100% 50% 50% 35.5% Ea. 42.6% Other Experiences (22.2%) ME (50%) (21.2%) (43.1%) (75%) (66.7%) (49.4%) (55.6%) ME (100%) (50%) (33.3%) (50%) (25.8%) (30.6%) Top Competencies 3D (61%) basic Eng. (33%) 2D (27%) 3D (75%) 2D (63%) basic Eng. (50%) 3D (50%) fluent Eng. (50%) basic Eng. (38%) 3D (60.9%) basic Eng. (34.4%) 2D (29.1%) 3D (55%) basic Eng. (29%) 3D (75%) fluent Eng. (50%) fluent Eng. (67%) 3D (33%) molding (33%) 3D (56.6%) fluent Eng (26.5%) basic Eng.(25.3%) NP plan (33%) fluent Eng. (22%) active (22%) sharp observe(80%) sketching (60%) coordinate (100%) 3D, basic Eng., creativity, aesthetic, coordinate, intal. views ea.50% ID: Industrial Designer, SID: Senior Industrial Designer, DD: Design Director/Manager, MD: Mechanism Designer, SMD: Senior Mechanism Designer, MDD: Mechanism Design Director/Manager, PP: Product Planner, CR: Concept Researcher, DPM: Design Project Manager, IFD: Interface Designer, PE: Package Engineer, PDM: Package Design Manager, CAIDE: Computer Aided Industrial Design Engineer NM: not mention; : particular industry /product experience; ME: managerial experience fluent Eng. (33%) basic Eng. (33%) 3D (67%) basic Eng. (33%) fluent Eng. (33%) coordinate (35.5%) fluent Eng. (25.8%) 3D (55.1%) basic Eng. (30.2%) fluent Eng. (21.1%) coordinate and organize; and international views. 11) Package Engineer: college degree; 1 to 2 years experience; experience with the particular industry or product is preferred. The top two competencies generally requested are fluency in English and basic communication ability in English. 12) Package Design Manager: college degree; 1 to 2 years work experience; experience with the particular industry or product is preferred. No competency requested is mentioned. 13) CAID Engineer: 3 to 5 years work experience is preferred. The top three competencies generally requested are 3D graphic software ability, fluency in English, and basic communication ability in English. 3.5 Comparisons of recruiting qualifications between in-house design departments and design houses Among the 265 job opportunities, 216 jobs (81.5%) are recruited by in-house design departments (IHDs), whereas 49 jobs (18.5%) are recruited by design houses (DHs). This shows that the job openings in the ID profession are largely from IHDs. Table 5 compares the overall recruiting qualifications between IHDs and DHs as follows: 1) Basic requirements: a) Education: IHDs generally request a college/university degree, and 8.8% of the IHD jobs even request a graduate degree, whereas DHs generally require a college degree or do not mention it. Thus, it seems that IHDs emphasize more on level of education. b) Age: age is not indicated by two thirds of IHD and DH jobs. c) Gender: 7.4% of IHD jobs specify male and 0.9% prefer female, whereas gender is not mentioned by DHs. d) Past experience: IHDs generally request 1 to 2 years, whereas it is generally not mentioned by DHs. e) IHDs generally prefer experience with the particular industry or product, whereas DHs generally request the same experiences as above, plus the ability to work independently. 2) Required Competencies: the top three rankings for DHs are all professional competencies, such as 3D and 2D graphic software abilities, creativity and imagination, whereas for IHDs, in addition to 3D graphic software ability, basic communication ability in English and fluency in English rank second and third, respectively. It seems that IHDs also emphasize more on applicants general competencies. 3.6 Comparisons of recruiting qualifications for three job categories between in-house design departments

7 Table 5 Comparisons of recruiting qualifications between in-house design departments and design houses Industry in-house design departments design houses Job category ID MD Others subtotal ID MD Others subtotal Total Item % 27.9% 9.1% 81.5% 12.5% 3.4% 2.6% 18.5% 100% education College Univ. College College/Univ. College NM NM College College 42.4% 50% 33.3% 41.7% 41.2% 48.5% 66.7% 57.1% 44.9% 42.3% age NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM 61.9% 70.3% 87.5% 67.6% 78.8% 88.9% 100% 83.7% 70.6% gender NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM 90.7% 90.5% 100% 91.7% 100% 100% 100% 100% 93.2% past design 1-2 yrs 1-2 yrs NM 1-2 yrs NM NM 3-5yrs NM 1-2 yrs experience 52.5% 40.5% 37.5% 46.3% 36.4% 44.4% 57.1% 36.7% 42.6% other experiences (22%) (55.4%) (33.3%) (34.7%) (18.2%) WI (22.2%) ME (42.9%) WI (12.2%) (12.2%) (30.6%) top 3 competencies 3D (57.6%) basic Eng. (34.7%) 2D (22.9%) 3D (54.1%) fluent Eng. (28.4%) basic Eng. (27%) basic Eng. (25%) fluent Eng. (25%) coordinate(20.8%) NP plan (20.8%) 3D (50.9%) basic Eng. (31%) fluent Eng. (23.1%) 3D (72.7%) 2D (51.5%) creativity (36.4%) 3D (77.8%) molding (44.4%) active. (33.3%) 3D (71.4%) coordinate (57.1%) active (28.6%) NM: not mention; : particular industry /product experience; ME: managerial experience; WI: work independently 3D (73.5%) 2D (38.8%) creativity (32.7%) 3D (55.1%) basic Eng. (30.2%) fluent Eng. (21.1%) and design houses Table 5 shows comparisons of recruiting qualifications for the three job categories between in-house design departments and design houses: 1) ID group: both IHDs and DHs request a college degree; age and gender are generally not mentioned by both; IHDs request 1 to 2 years work experience, whereas it is generally not mentioned by DHs; both request experience with the particular industry or product. Among the top three competencies requested, in addition to 3D and 2D graphic software abilities, which are required by both IHDs and DHs; IHDs request basic communication ability in English, whereas DHs request creativity and imagination. 2) MD group: IHDs request a university degree, whereas it is generally not mentioned by DHs; age and gender are not generally mentioned by both; IHDs request 1 to 2 years experience, whereas it is generally not mentioned by DHs; IHDs request experience with particular industry or product, whereas DHs request the ability to work independently. Among the top three competencies requested, in addition to 3D graphic software ability, which is requested by both IHDs and DHs; IHDs request fluency in English and basic communication ability in English, whereas DHs request knowledge of molding tools or plastics injection, as well as active, aggressive and optimistic personality. 3) Others group: IHDs request a college degree, whereas it is generally not mentioned by DHs; age and gender are generally not mentioned by both; DHs request 3 to 5 years work experience, whereas it is generally not mentioned by DHs; IHDs request experience with the particular industry or product, whereas DHs prefer managerial experience. Among the top three competencies requested, in addition to ability to communicate, coordinate and organize, which is requested by both IHDs and DHs; IHDs request fluency in English, basic communication ability in English, and knowledge of new product planning and marketing, whereas DHs request 3D graphic software ability, as well as active, aggressive and optimistic personality. Based on the above comparisons, it is found that different recruiting qualifications for three job categories between IHDs and DHs, the former seems to place more emphasis on applicants general competency, whereas the latter values their professional competency more. 4. Conclusions

8 4.1 Extensive job opportunities are available in the ID profession Due to the variety of job opportunities in the industrial design profession, different job titles are classified into three categories, namely industrial design, mechanism design, and others (product planning, design management, interface design, etc.). As shown in Section 3.4, there are 13 job titles related to the ID profession. Among them, 43% of the job openings can be classified into the Mechanism Design and Others groups, with various job titles, such as mechanism designer, senior mechanism designer, mechanism director/manager, product planner, concept researcher, design project manager, interface designer, package engineer, package design manager, and CAID engineer. It shows that the job market does provide extensive job opportunities for the ID graduates. 4.2 Corporations emphasize general competencies as well as professional competencies The required competencies differ between various design tasks as well as between different types of design organizations. The 3D graphic software ability is a professional competency requested by both ID and MD groups, whereas the particular competency requested by the Others group depends on different job titles. For example, concept researchers require skills of sketching and ideation, and product planners request skills for new product planning and marketing. In addition to professional competencies such as 3D graphic software ability, and creativity and imagination, in order to respond to globalization, corporations also emphasize on applicants general competencies, such as abilities to communicate, coordinate and organize, the ability to communicate in English, with experience of studying or living abroad, and international views, etc. Furthermore, it is found that different recruiting qualifications between IHDs and DHs, the former seems to place more emphasis on applicants general competency, whereas the latter values their professional competency more. Moreover, personality and attitudes such as being active, aggressive and optimistic, enthusiastic with sense of responsibility, interested in and devoted to design, able to travel to China or abroad are additional expectations for job applicants. 4.3 Job information and curriculum would help students plan careers ahead The reasons for many ID graduates not choosing to pursue a career in the design profession may vary. These design students could be better tuned up for extensive job opportunities in the ID profession. Information about ID recruiting not only enables students to understand the current job market, but also helps design educators to consider whether or not design courses can satisfy different types of industry, job types, and students needs. Therefore, it would be better to encourage each student based on his/her own aptitudes, talents, and interests, to plan his/her design career in advance and to develop particular competencies requested by specific job titles in the ID profession. Students should be reminded to plan their own design careers as early as possible, to take courses planned ahead in order to develop competencies needed for future employment. Design educators can help students to better understand their own abilities and the job opportunities as well as the matches between them. What design schools can actively present to students is a clearly structured curriculum framework for diverse directions of design career development, with which students can take courses systematically in order to better prepare for future employment. 4.4 Further studies Due to the limitation of time and resource, this study collected only 265 job opportunities for analysis. Further studies may be conducted over a longer period of time and a wider spectrum of media to collect data. Notably, it is advisable to increase the amount of samples from design houses or other job categories, such as design promotion or design education, in order to assure the data validity.

9 Acknowledgement This study received partly financial support from the National Science Council of the Republic of China Government, under Grant No. NSC E References [1] Archer, L. Bruce, The Systematic Design Methods, translated by Yuan, G.Q., 1974, ID & Package Center in R.O.C. [2] Ballay, J.M., 1991, Thinking About Liberal Education for Designers, The 1991 Conference on Design Education, Atlanta, Georgia: IDSA Educators Committee. [3] Career Employment Information, 2003, website: [4] Chang, W.H., 1995, NSC Report of Training Professional Design Talents in Taiwan, NYTSU, NSC S [5] Ho, M.Q., Lai, M.M., & Chang, C.F., 1997, Design Education of Cooperative Participation The Role of Design Research Center Plays in Training Design Talents, Proceeding of Training Professional Design Talents Conference, held at NYTSU pp [6] Ho, X.Z., Chen, J.H., You, M., Cai, D.C., & Chen, Q.X., 1996, A Study of Curriculum Model for Design Education in Taiwan Vocational Schools, Proceeding of 1996 Sino-Japanese Design Education Conference, pp [7] ICSID, 2003, International Council of Societies of Industrial Design Website, [8] IDSA, 2003, Industrial Designers Society of America Website, [9] Saka Sida, Kyosi, 1996, Training System of Professional Design Talents in Japanese Corporations, Proceeding of 1996 Sino-Japanese Design Education Conference, pp [10] Yang, M.Y., Lin, S.H., & You, M., 2002, Preliminary Study of Learning Situations and Career Guidance Needs for University ID Students, Proceeding of the 6th CID Academic Design Research Conference, held at NTUST, pp